Culver City

Goran Eriksson

City: Culver CityPosition Seeking: Councilmember

Question 1: Please share the most meaningful arts and cultural experience you had growing up.

Growing up in Sweden we had live theater performed by "traveling" theater companies with leading Swedish actors one or two times per year as part of our school day. One year we saw "Jeppe pa beret"and that left me thinking a lot. It dealt with the lure and consequences of abusing alcohol and the underlying message of the play is that people who gets a lot of power quickly have a tendency to become despot.

Question 2: What do you think should be the role of City Council in the development and support of the region’s arts and cultural infrastructure?

The Council has an important role in this regard to not only sponsor city-funded cultural events and programming at city facilities, but to encourage the creation of public-private partnerships that promote such events throughout Culver City. Partnerships like the ones at the Kirk Douglas Theater and the Ivy Substation have been important, but I believe we need to extend this other parts of the city: West Washington, the Helms District, Fox Hills . . . there are many opportunities beyond Downtown and we need to do a better job of exploring them.

Question 3: What’s your vision for the city? What role, if any, does art and culture play in achieving that vision?

My vision for the city is to make Culver City financially successful and a place where our quality of life is second to none. Concerts, films, festivals, fairs and other cultural events are an important part of that quality of life, and I believe the city should work to make sure events like these are integrated into our community. That means working with our schools to promote the arts, developing public-private partnerships to help fund these programs and being active promoters of these events to make sure everyone in the community knows about them and can take advantage of them.

Questions 4: A recent report by the Otis College of Design found that 1 in every 7 jobs in LA County is supports the creative sector and economy in Los Angeles County. What strategies, if any, would you pursue to enhance the region’s creative economy (i.e. cultural tourism, indirect and direct jobs, nonprofit and for profit organizations)?

The Otis study actually indicated that 1 out of every SIX jobs 744,000 jobs in LA County is directly indirectly or induced by the creative economy And a big part of that sector's success in our area is the fact that creative economies want to be located in a place where the quality of life for their business and their employees is exceptional The best way to enhance our region's creative economy is to continue to create a city with an outstanding quality of life including such things as addition of high-speed fiber infrastructure.